GDC 2009

A little while ago, as some of you may know, I was at GDC San Francisco (Game Developers Conference), and while there, I learned a lot about gamer culture.

Now, E3 is and always has been a press event—an event where game companies get to show off the new cool stuff that they're doing to the public and to each other. GDC, though, is an industry event—where it's mostly about meeting other people in the industry, awarding innovation in games, and the new middleware type stuff that's out there. Being someone who works in the game industry, and only a short drive away from San Francisco, I just had to be there.

I spent a little bit of time on what's called the “Career Pavilion”, which is mostly designed for people who want to break into the industry, want to know what's out there, how best to apply for jobs, meet HR people, all that good stuff. Plus, lots of swag!

I didn't spend too much time at the Career Pavilion—the free time I had between meetings was spent mostly exploring the expo-floor, but I did notice something. Of all the companies that had booths in the Career Pavilion (Sega, Valve, Bioware, SOE, all the big names and plenty of small ones) there were three that were much more popular than any others. Activision (which was mostly because they had a big stage for people to digitally rock out on), Square-Enix, and Blizzard.

Make no mistake, I love both of these companies, but they don't produce games that are enough above average quality to warrant the uneven distribution of inquiries by students. The simple fact of the matter is that a ton of people who want to get into the game industry right now want to do so because they played Final Fantasy 7 or Starcraft when they were young. (Starcraft has been out for 10 years now, meaning the people in their last year of college were between 10 and 12 when it came out, FF7 was only a year before and Diablo II only two years after).

For our generation, let's face it, these were some of the most influential games of their time. I'm sure there are people who started playing WoW as their first Blizzard game, but I wouldn't be surprised if that population is outnumbered 25 to 1 by people who started with Warcraft II, and kept going from there. I know I can name a small handful of games that made me a “gamer” (Chrono Trigger among them). What about you? Did you start on other Blizzard products?

Comments

Comment by Shaxe

I think the first ever Blizzard game I've played was Starcraft, but by then it was probably out for a few years already, following with WC3 and now, WoW.

Comment by Felborn

on 2009-04-21T21:06:52-05:00

First!

Nope, WoW junkie born-and-bred. Played Runescape first, but by comparison it shouldn't count.

Comment by Mithros

on 2009-04-21T21:07:05-05:00

I actually started with all the Gameboy stuff when I wasaround 10 years old, went to PS2 and enjoyed console gaming for a while, tried the for a bit PSP, did get much from it, still do a little console stuff on the PS3 but I got into WoW in 2006 I would like to say and have been mostly playing that since. It has been both my first Blizzard game and my first game on the computer.

Comment by Lugburz

on 2009-04-21T21:07:34-05:00

I kind of started on blizzard games. What I really started on was Age of Empire: Rise of Rome. THAT was some quality time spent. Then I played warcraft Orcs and Humans and then from there on I really got into gaming and a while later Blizzard, Blizzard, Blizzard. Starcraft: Brood War is still one of the greatest games I have ever played.

Comment by shippou

on 2009-04-21T21:10:14-05:00

Warcraft II, hands down

Comment by MasterOfDisguise

on 2009-04-21T21:18:25-05:00

Well, World of Warcraft was technically the first computer game made from Blizzard that I've played, but The Lost Vikings was truly the first game I have ever played that was made by Blizzard.

I actually had no idea that the same company that made World of Warcraft also made The Lost Vikings until a few months ago. Oh, how obtuse I can be sometimes.

I would have been ten-years old if I had started playing World of Warcraft when it was released. I started playing just before I turned 12.

Nice blogging entry, by the way. =)

Comment by ZachUSAman

on 2009-04-21T21:25:21-05:00

played age of empires first, then age of mythology, eager for more i got into WC3 then runescape and finally WoW.

Comment by Sheldane

on 2009-04-21T21:38:25-05:00

I got into gaming with Pong and the Atari 2600. Played lots of computer games on the Commodore 64. Then I got a Playstation just to play FF7.

But in all that time, and in all the games I've played, Diablo and Diablo 2 were by far the ones that made me a "gamer". I remember a game store owner telling me how much he was looking forward to Diablo from the ads. I looked at them and thought it looked alright. And then proceeded to play those two games, nearly to the exclusion of everything else, for the next decade or so. (not that I gamed 4 hours every single day that whole time...) I mean I played several other games, but I would always get bored or disappointed in them after a few hours to maybe a week or two. And I'd always go back to the Diablo series.

If I left the corporate programming world for gaming, there is no other company I'd want to work for more.

Comment by phluff

on 2009-04-21T22:00:27-05:00

the first game that got me a "gamer" was Age of Mythology. but i had been playing gameboy games before, but i wasn't a gamer then, cause everyone played gameboy. WoW is my first Blizz game, and i have gone back to see what warcraft was like. im just happing gaming

Comment by omglaserzpewpew

on 2009-04-21T22:09:30-05:00

My first game was Top Gun for the NES. My first foray into Blizzard territory was Warcraft II.

I grew up playing video games though, so it's hard to say, "Yes. Here is the game that made me a gamer."

Comment by Kangi

on 2009-04-21T22:15:14-05:00

I gamed from Gameboy on up. WoW was actually my first Blizzard game, but after playing it, I played WC III. WoW makes alot more sense when you play past WC games.

Comment by Liquoid

on 2009-04-21T22:37:27-05:00

Warcraft II was the first Blizzard game i've ever played. Starcraft however was the first one I've played competitively

Comment by vexis58

on 2009-04-21T22:57:59-05:00

I started gaming on NES when I was around 8 years old or so (Final Fantasy 1, anyone?), but as the only computer my family had when I was growing up was a Mac, I played Warcraft II and Diablo II far more than any other computer game. Their mac-friendliness made me pick WoW over the other MMOs of the time, and stick with them even though my mac is broken and I use a real gaming PC now.

Comment by Magenesium

on 2009-04-21T23:02:28-05:00

Well, I personally started with good ol' Nintendo 64 and Gameboy. Followed Nintendo through its stages up to Wii which is a great console. My first Blizzard game was Starcraft which I played at my friends house as a kid. At that time the game was pretty old, but still great. After that there are two games that really made me a gamer. Age of Empires and Heroes of Might and Magic. Both great games, I recomend then to anyone who is a gamer. To me the best games have always been Medieval or Space age. My next Blizzard expierience was Warcraft III which great because of its great Age of Empires-like style. That brings me to just this summer when a friend started me on Wow. I just love the game, the intuitive gameplay, the amazing story, its one of the best games I've played.

Comment by saphiremomo

on 2009-04-21T23:36:55-05:00

I started my gaming 'career,' as you may call it, on Chrono Trigger as well (Still love that game sooo much)... But I've been playing Blizzard Games, most notably Warcraft (we may have has some starcraft, I'm not sure) since Warcraft I - my parents were huge fans of the series (my mother liked building little towns and my dad liked owning the local orcs...)

Neither of my parents cared for Warcraft III, but I loved it. Being a tween and all (I think, can't quite remember when it first came out...) I had pretty much just come into the understanding of the Warcraft storyline and all that jazz.

Comment by Eprahs

on 2009-04-21T23:52:12-05:00

The C64 introduced me to this type of game--spent hours playing all the SSI games ( pool of radience etc) as well as Pirates , Defender of the crown and Legacy of the Ancients and the only platform game that i really like --Bubble Bobble. from there went to the Amiga1200 for more of the same and then to the PC with games like Neverwinter Nights . As far as Blizard goes I started with Starcraft and warcraft 3 . Resisted getting WOW for years untill last Christmas when my Family got me the lot and two 60 day game tme cards --wish I started playing a lot sooner

Comment by Crocostimpy

on 2009-04-22T00:16:05-05:00

Started gaming on the NES with (surprise) Super Mario Bros., but the game I would say made me a gamer, was probably Super Mario Bros. 3. It was the only game I had ever waited in a line outside of a toy store for, after seein The Wizard on one of the previous weekends.

I remember actually racing some kid to the checkout while both of our mothers were just taking their sweet time a ways behind chatting with each other. The gold cartridge Legend of Zelda was pretty mesmerizing, too.

First computer game I played was Doom II. Otherwise stayed loyal to Nintendo up to the game cube.

Comment by moenbase

on 2009-04-22T00:45:55-05:00

The first Blizzard game I played was Diablo. Followed by Diablo II.Only after playing lots of games on the Atari 2600, C64, NES, SNES.The one time favorite game that I spend hours and hours on was New Horizons: Uncharted Waters for the SNES. Also the FF series were really great back then.At the PC I probably played Diablo II (and its expansion) and later on Rose Online, Guildwars most of the times.

Comment by Gyorg

on 2009-04-22T01:36:02-05:00

My first blizzard game was The Lost Vikings: Norse by Norsewest around 1998-2000, but my first game (at least, that I can name) was Super Mario World, waaaayyyyy back when I was 3-4. I apparently had been playing computer games even earlier, but I can't name the game. Something involving knights and capturing castles, I think. That was 17 years ago, so forgive me if my memory is a little rusty.

Comment by Skoro

on 2009-04-22T01:44:56-05:00

First Blizzard game I've ever played was Diablo, but I had already been an avid gamer before that, with play times of console games reaching 5+ hours whenever possible =D. The first game I can remember playing was Super Mario 64 back when I was 3, and getting 100% on that in a few days made me certain that I can kick any game into next year...